CORPUS CHRISTI, TEXAS — As COVID-19 continues to move across the country, military recruiting for our nation's service branches has changed.
The United States Marine Corps is taking a whole new approach when it comes to recruiting soldiers. That approach is through social media.
“The way things are going right now, yes, we know we have YouTube; we have all social media platforms out there. So we are engaging in that manner just by pushing out information that kind of inspires our potential joiners to come in and speak with us,” said U.S. Marine Corps Staff Sergeant Donell McDaniel.
When it comes to recruiting, COVID-19 has made things challenging.
“A lot of it is done virtually so it is kind of hard to get that one-on-one, get that up close and personal impersonation of that person. Once we have them in, we can really look at their true character and make sure that the Marine Corps is the perfect fit for them through telling stories about the Marine Corps.” said McDaniel.
As a result, our military branches like the Marines could fall thousands short of their enlistment goals.
“Here in Corpus Christi...no, we have a lot of individuals that are motivated and ready to join. For a minute, I was sitting back and kind of looking things over, I was like, maybe this will slow things down, but it hasn’t,” said McDaniel.
Staff Sergeant Donell McDaniel says while they have changed on how they operate, they have not changed their mission.
“I can tell you that as far as the Marines go, we are in place to make marines, win our nation's battles, and return quality citizens,” said McDaniel.
Local recruiting offices will continue to be staffed but with reduced manpower to practice social distancing guidelines recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.